Black Sabbath Vol. 4

 

I'm current reading Geezer Butler's bio so I am revisiting my Sabbath records and am incredibly surprised that of all of the Sabbath posts that I have done, I never got around to this album. Of course, the Blogger search function is fairly shite, but I'll try writing again....

Although I heard the previous records first, this has got to be my fave album of theirs. The production, sound and songs are all here and it's a great package, even if they were succumbing to cocaine excesses at the time (Ozzy even stage-whispers "COCAINE!" in "Snowblind"). It certainly was their last great hurrah before they went overboard with keys and weaker tunes.

Opening with "Wheels of Confusion", it's Sabbath at their best - great guitar sounds, monstrously heavy riffs, head-banging rhythm section, cool time change in the middle solo and Ozzy sounds on top of his game, as well. As they were wont to do, they added on an instrumental coda at the ending that has more terrific riffing from Iommi - amazing and truly memorable for an instro section! Even more head-bangin' heaviness'n'licks in "Tomorrow's Dream" but then they change course for a truly pretty piano'n'strings ballad in "Changes" - a song that Ozzy revisited not that long ago with his daughter. According to Geezer, they got high in the studio when they recorded "FX", which is just them f'king around with an Echoplex, but they return with another brutal riff'n'chord behemoth in "Supernaut", where Tony again takes off in the stratosphere with his soloing! 

Side two of the vinyl album started off in the same vein with more darkly poundin' metal mania in their ode to cocaine, "Snowblind", which continues to great effect in "Cornucopia", with its various time changes that apparently took its toll on drummer Bill Ward while recording, but it turned out to be an amazing number! Tony shows his sensitive side as he woke up early one California morning to experience a "Laguna Sunrise", and created an acoustic guitar'n'strings ballad, before coming back with a vengeance for the fast-paced "St. Vitus Dance" and closing with "Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes" that begins with a doom-ridden plodding beat that sounds like Godzilla stompin' on Tokyo before speeding up with another iconic Iommi riff and various other changes throughout its seemingly short 5+ minutes.

I know that strains were starting in the band's internal relationships and the drug abuse was getting way out of hand, but damn if they didn't still produce (literally - Iommi produces this record and does an amazing job - the sound is excellent) one of their best and most consistent records here!